Malls in India are incorporating a clause in fresh contracts to prevent retailers from advertising their online business on store fronts. This step comes after a dispute triggered by Zara, their most profitable tenant, which is promoting its ecommerce site on the facades of its brick-and-mortar outlets in shopping centres.

“Currently, advertising (their) online (business) on the store-front is a grey area and we cannot do anything with the old agreement and in the new agreement we are drafting this clause,” said Mukesh Kumar, vice president for Infiniti Malls in Mumbai. “It is explained to the store in the mall that you cannot advertise anything to do in the online space.”

Zara declined to comment on the issue.

Abhishek Bansal, executive director of Pacific Mall in west Delhi, said the Zara episode has triggered the new clause. “Now every mall is incorporating this clause that you cannot advertise online at least on the shop front,” he said. “Also, the clause says any message that would go on the store front has to be approved by the mall management.”

Last month, Zara emblazoned its store-front window panes with signs reading ‘Now shop at Zara.com’ to announce its online presence in India. The campaign began weeks before the Spanish fashion retailer started its website in India early last month and is continuing. At New Delhi’s Select Citywalk, Zara.com promotiona material is visible at various places including the front windows and trial rooms.

Select Citywalk, Mall of India, Promenade and Pacific in the National Capital Region and Infiniti in Mumbai have opposed Zara’s in-store campaign, sources said. DLF Premium Malls, the owner of Mall of India in Noida and Promenade in Delhi, declined to comment

“We are saying, ‘Why are you using brick-and-mortar stores to promote online?’ They argue that it is their façade so they are advertising,” said a senior mall owner. “With all the competition between offline and online, we thought it wasn’t fair for Zara to promote online from our malls.”

The executive was referring to discounts offered by sellers on platforms operated by cashrich ecommerce companies including Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra to lure customers to shop online.

Zara had threatened to send a legal notice to Pacific Mall when it tried to stop the Zara-.com advertising, according to amall executive.

Bansal said there was no legal threat and that the mall has “let it go” to allow Zara to advertise its online site as Pacific Mall hasn’t seen any impact on sales one month after one of the world’s largest fashion brands went online in India.

Zara has created waves in India ever since it entered the country seven years ago. In 2015, it crossed the $100 million sales mark, five years after opening its first shop here, prompting mall owners to bend over backwards to accommodate Zara’s demands including giving free fit-outs and slashing their revenue-sharing.